Happy Anniversary: Activists "Drink-in" at Hess Building to Mark Two Years Without Delaware Basin Fracking

A dozen people took swigs of clean tap water outside of the Hess corporate offices in Woodbridge on Nov. 21 to commemorate the absence of natural gas and oil mining in the Delaware Water Basin. 

Hydraulic Fracturing, or "fracking" is a controversial mining procedure in which pressurized water that's been chemically treated is forced down into shale to free up natural gas and oil reserves.

Critics of fracking say the runoff is a severe pollutant of nearby ecosystems and bodies of water, including drinking water.

Two years ago, public outcry caused the Delaware River Basin Commission to cancel a vote that would have allowed up to 20,000 fracking wells in the basin, according to a press release from Food and Water Watch.

Hess held leases for 80,000 acres of oil and gas reserves in the basin, but the company allowed the leases to expire earlier this year, according to Food and Water Watch.